252 SKY-LINE NETTING 



keepers and in setting the wires, as, in the latter case, 

 they will know where they are placed, and so save 

 themselves many a fall ; they, too, know where birds 

 can be most easily taken. These wires should be 

 marked, and all taken up before the 12th of August, 

 when the birds are less likely to be netted, as the 

 high prices will have disappeared, besides which, no 

 day-netting is likely to take place after the shooting- 

 season has commenced, except in the most unpro- 

 tected localities. 



It is not an easy matter to use a drag-net on rough 

 ground at night ; but a longer net is used on the flats 

 on dark, windy nights, when tremendous hauls are 

 made, the whereabouts of each pack having been 

 marked down for weeks before. The ruffians know 

 the neighbourhood so well that they find little difficulty 

 in conveying their booty away to the market in light, 

 hill pony -carts, which are able to slip across the 

 country to out-of-the-way stations. Often, too, such 

 contraband goods are smuggled away in the carriers' 

 carts in disguise. In fact, every sort of dodge is re- 

 sorted to. At times the game is packed up in a box, 

 similar to those used by women, and addressed to 

 some woman, either real or fictitious. This is a very 

 common dodge when it is supposed that there is any 

 likelihood of the attention of the police being attracted 

 at the station. 



I once had a cheque sent to me from a game-dealer 

 for some game which had been sent from my own 

 shooting, and which I myself had never either shot i 

 or sent away; and at another time I received a bill for 

 the carriage of a heavy hamper of game which had 

 been sent away the previous week from my own 



